Shades of Purple
by Grace Singer
From Chapter Two: Threads and Glass
Magdaline knitted when a boat was due to arrive. She would sit by the window of her little cabin and wait patiently while her fingers spun an intricate web of designs.
The final web she would hang over a post near the dock. Any skilled witch would stop and gaze at the intricate work and read what had been written by fingers skilled in the art of webcasting. The finely knitted, silken threads would slowly deteriorate until only the strongest threads remained and would so hang as other webs were added to the post.
Before Magdaline could hang up her work she needed to examine it, to understand which of the fourteen young women she expected on this shipment most needed her guidance. She needed to know which to contact and which to avoid. Which to groom into powerful resources and which to leave to their own devices.
Magdaline had cast many such webs but hadn't seen a single thread truly worthy of her attention in over 50 years. The last three had been on a single shipment and had benefited miserably from her skillful guidance. Some students will learn from a teacher. Some students will steal. Some students will turn their backs completely and throw caution to the wind. The sister's three, exiled as babes from their mainland home had done all three and were beyond her help now.
But in this new web she saw a thread, a remarkable thread of such strength and color. She knew immediately that the child she had marked ages ago had returned to her true home, the place of her birth and her mother's birth, a secret kept so well that Magdaline was certain the young witch wouldn't know it herself.